More Amsterdam.

Mickey and Mic who kindly let us sleep in their son's bedroom. So I guess really we should thank Yaan :-)

The lizards close to Leidseplein.

The giant chess at Max Euweplein.

I Amsterdam.

We walked through old parts of the city. "In de niwe loeyery". They used to treat leather and other skins here.

Typical crooked Amsterdam house.

Canal.

All throughout town there are these pained elephants. They are cool.

Afternoon refreshment.

Max.

And then I couldn't help myself and I bought a "patatje pinda". Man it was gooooooooood!

There is "kermis" at Dam square.

The ferris wheel there always seems extreme in size.

We trained back to my parents early evening.

We passed spiders on our way to their house.

It was all just a dream...

In the morning Nicole and I drove the train to Amsterdam. This is a free news paper that exists in several countries but not in Australia. I love this news paper.

Second class compartments had not changed a bit. Neither had the people.

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When we walked out of Amsterdam Central Station it felt like we had never left. It was weird. It had been two years but it felt like we came back from a two week vacation. It was unreal.

The gypsies still play beautiful tunes.

Tram 25 that used to take us to our house before we moved.

Central Station.

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We met Suzanne at the station and we walked in to town. It was great seeing the Amsterdam canals again.

Suzanne at Zen's lunchroom. It was fantastic to meet her again.

Nicole and the Zen lady.

Gerrit joined us as well. The gang of four was complete again.

Temperatures were a little bit different than in Adelaide but the Guinness kept me warm.

Eh! Selecta!

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In the evening we met lots of friends at Mulligans. It was fantastic to see everybody again. Unfortunately you can't talk a lot on these kinds of occasions so I will have to catch up with people separately as well over time :-)

Welcome to The Netherlands.

Back in The Netherlands. Close to 8AM. Sun light over the flat lands. It was crispy but the air was fresh. It felt nice but surreal at the same time.

Hitting the city limits of Alkmaar, where I will stay with my parents for a few days.

After coffee and chat Nicole and I walked to the mall that had been given a big overhaul. I have to say it is a LOT nicer than Northpark, our old mall where we used to shop in Adelaide.

I bought "kibbeling". A deep fried battered fish extravaganza that is Dutch. Accompanied by Garlic sauce it is very nice.

In the evening we went to a new Greek restaurant where we had a great time even though we almost fell asleep. From left to right: myself, Ilse my sister, my mom, The Greek waitress, dad and Cassie, Ilse's girl friend.

Malaysia - day 2

Changing hotels was a wise decision. I had a great sleep and I was surrounded by quality again. Breakfast was superb. It has made the stay so much nicer. I would have been crushed if the bad experiences in the Istana would have been my last one of Malaysia...

But eventually that dream comes to an end as well and it's check-out time. We left for the airport around 16:30.

Driving to the airport using the hotel limo. Trust me, it's an hours drive, you want to pay for the limo...

At Kuala Lumpur International Airport. We have been here many times.

Malaysia - day 1

This is the view from our OLD hotel. That's right; OLD. We booked the Istana for part sentimental reasons and part because it was a good hotel, seven years ago. This time, it sucked dogs balls. The staff was very nice but:

• The bed was hard as wood
• The shower didn't work
• The shower-head in the bath tub was leaking very much
• The carpet was dirty and old
• The fridge contained only one can of Coke and one can of beer
• The airconditioner was not working properly
• The hairdryer got so hot you could hardly hold it
• Bread at breakfast was old and stale

So after a shit night of sleep and no shower and crap breakfast, we had a little chat with the manager to let him know about this. He didn't want to refund the money for the second night but he did offer to give us a ride in his taxi service to our new hotel which we gladly accepted.

Bye bye old view...

Hello new room.

Much better. There was fresh fruit and flowers, too.

Nice bathroom that looked clean and was without mold.

Obviously happier.

The new view.

The hotel has a swimming pool and tennis courts.

In the afternoon we went for a walk and a little food-hunt. I had 200 grams of wagyu.

The petronas towers. Very beautiful buildings.

KLCC mall - ground floor. This is THE mall for tourists to shop.

The Deepavali festival starts soon. There are very colourful mandala's in the mall. These are created from coloured rice kernels.

Yeah. I did go in. And yeah, I did not leave empty handed :-P

The mall from higher up.